RBS Principal’s
Notes
August 31, 2018
We’ve had a great
opening to school! Thank you for all of
your support during the hot weather, and for sending us such great and
resilient kids! Happy Labor Day! Enjoy your long weekend, and we’ll see you on
Tuesday, September 4th.
IN THE NEWS:
RBS Fall Book Fair
Calling all volunteers!
If you’re interested in helping with this Fall’s Scholastic Book Fair,
please email Anne Lewis at anneclewis@hotmail.com. The Fair runs 2:00-7:00 PM from Tuesday,
September 18 - Thursday, September 20. There’s
plenty of opportunity to pitch in with set-up during school hours before this
too. Thank you!
RBS School Picture Day
Our school picture day is coming up on Wednesday, September 5th. If you did not receive your picture order form,
I’ve included one HERE. Also, Geskus has provided an FAQ Page for parents in case you have
any questions.
Paraprofessional Openings at RBS
If anyone is
interested, or knows of anyone who is interested in becoming a paraprofessional
here at Riddle Brook School, please contact Matt Munsey and he'll be able to
provide you/them with more information. He can be reached at 471-1082
(please hit 0 for Mrs. Gorrie or Mrs. McMahon to transfer you to him) or
at munseym@sau25.net.
A Message
from our School Counselors (Mrs. Reese & Mrs. Kenny)
We are excited to
have two counselors on board this year in our counseling department. Marty
Reese, who has been with us for many years, and Martina Kenny, who was a
counselor intern here at RBS last year.
Martina will be
working Monday, Tuesday and a half day Thursday.
Marty will be
working Wednesday, Friday and a half day Thursday.
Please call either
counselor with any questions or concerns you may have regarding your children
and they will be happy to help.
You can reach
Marty at 471-1082 x 25205 and Martina at 471-1082 x 25272
RBS Garden
Please come by
(after school hours) to check out our garden. There are still beans, swiss chard, some
potatoes, green onions, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and yellow and green
zucchini squash to pick during the next month.
Bedford
Education Foundation Annual Fall Fundraiser
Saturday, October
20, 2018, 7 PM @ Noah's Event Center in Bedford, featuring the RAL Jazz
Band and Mr. Michael Fournier as our Master of Ceremonies! Tickets are limited and sold on a first-come,
first-serve basis.
Find more
information about the Bedford
Education Foundation on our website, or follow us on Facebook.
If you have questions or would like to get involved, please email info@befnh.org.
REMINDERS:
PM Buses
Typically, for the
1st week and a half or so of school, we call Kindergarten and 1st grade
students to line up for their afternoon buses prior to the older students.
Consequently, it delays the departure of buses about 10-15 minutes. However,
it's worth it in the end as it provides the little ones with a better sense of
security and understanding during this hectic time of the day. We appreciate
your understanding and patience with this!
Dismissal
Information & Identification
When providing
dismissal information (i.e. who will be picking up your child(ren) from
school), please use proper names instead of grandmother, nanny, neighbor,
friend, etc. Staff members doing parent pick-up duty may need to ask
for ID for those people they don't know, and therefore need a name to
go with the ID. Please be
patient with staff members at the start of the year as they get to know
parents/care takers.
Pirate Ship
I wanted to let
parents know that we purchased and installed a new piece of equipment on our
playground this summer—a Rocking Pirate Ship!
This pirate ship is great for our younger students and is wheelchair
accessible. Please take a look at it the
next time you are at school. We were
able to purchase it with fundraising money, so THANK YOU to everyone for
supporting our fundraisers over the years (Family Fun Night, Harvest Festival,
Dances, etc.)!
Infosnap
– Action Item
If you have not
already done so, please take a few minutes to complete the Infosnap
process. Unfortunately, children will
not be able to have their pictures taken or use technology until it is
complete. If you do not have the email
with the link/snapcode that was sent to you this summer, please contact the
school office.
Automated Attendance Call
Again this year,
families in the Bedford School District will receive a phone call confirming their
child's absence via our "School Messenger" system. Once we have taken attendance, a message will
be generated confirming your child's absence. The elementary calls will go out at
approximately 9:30 AM, McKelvie and Lurgio will go out at 10:30
AM and the BHS at 11:00 AM. If
this call comes to you in error, please contact the Main Office so that we can
correct the attendance report.
PTG
News/Information
VOLUNTEER AT
RIDDLE BROOK!
Welcome to the new
school year! We are the Bedford Parent Teacher Group (PTG). We create a working
partnership with parents, teachers, and school administration to foster a
cooperative, enriching learning environment for our students, and this is
possible through fundraising and donations. Our volunteer program has been
active for more than 40 years! We all help in different ways: some dedicate
their time and talents assisting both during and after school, others volunteer
with help from home. We encourage you to become involved in one (or more!) of
our many different programs and opportunities. Weather you plan to help
regularly or only occasionally, please fill out our Volunteer
Form by September 7th.
NEW THIS YEAR:
ONLINE VOLUNTEER FORM
We’re excited to
introduce a new, faster, paperless way to share your information for
volunteering at Bedford schools. Instead of sending home a paper volunteer form
to fill out and return as previous years, we will now offer a Volunteer Google
Form for each school.
Click HERE to
access the RBS PTG Volunteer Form for this school year 2018-2019.
Link is also
available in our school’s website and the PTG website www.bedfordptg.org under
helpful links/forms. Simply fill out the Google form for RBS and you will be
informed of all the great opportunities throughout the year. You can help at
the events that interest you and fit your schedule. School must receive a
completed Google form in order for you to volunteer. If you have any assistance
with the Google form contact your Riddle Brook School Volunteer
Coordinator: Melissa Morales at rbsvolunteerptg@gmail.com. Paper
copies of the form will be available upon request at the front desk in school’s
main office.
Thank you for
sharing your time and talents with our school!
Biodegradable
Tray Update from Food Service Director, Emily Murphy
For the 2018-2019
school year, the Bedford Food Service Department planned to purchase
compostable lunch trays per the approved petition warrant article. In
performing comprehensive research into companies that provide these trays, the
Food Service Department, in collaboration with the NHDES, located a new and up
and coming company, Grow Plastics, to provide the new lunch trays. After much development
in creating a partnership with Grow Plastics and our current paper supplier
Central Paper, it has been determined that the new compostable lunch trays will
not be available at the start of the 2018-19 school year. However, Grow
Plastics has informed the Food Service Department that the lunch trays will be
available sometime this fall, and at the very latest January 2019. The Food Service
Department continues to work diligently with Grow Plastics and Central Paper on
our new and exciting partnership.
Principal/Parent Communication
As my primary form
of communication, I will be sending you an email update every week—typically on
Friday afternoon/evening. The email will include action items (highlighted in yellow),
reminders, and other important information.
I will also archive all of my notes on the RBS web page (Principal’s
News). Parents, it is important that you
review these notes each week and act on the action items, when necessary. I appreciate your partnership in this.
Drop-Off and Dismissal Procedures
Morning Drop-Off:
When transporting
your child to Riddle Brook School between 7:30 a.m. and 7:50 a.m., you will
drop-off in the oval at the rear entrance of the school. A duty teacher
is available to supervise children at the drop off area beginning at 7:30
a.m. From 7:50 a.m - 8:00 a.m., you will drop off at the playground/main
entrance. I would recommend arriving by 7:50 as often as possible as
traffic can get backed up at the front of the school. If the children
arrive late to their rooms (due to traffic) they will still be marked tardy.
The academic day begins at 8:00 AM. If you arrive after 8:00 AM, you must
park in Visitor Parking and accompany your child to the office to sign a
clipboard noting his/her tardiness. Your
child will receive a pass from the office to be given to his/her teacher.
In order to
avoid traffic back up and being marked tardy, the best course of action is to
take the bus or arrive at 7:30 AM.
Afternoon Parent Pick-Up:
Please click HERE
for Parent Pick-Up procedures.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
September 3 – Labor Day Observance – NO SCHOOL
September 5 – RBS School Pictures
September 7 – All School Meeting (National Anthem) –
Staff & students…please wear red, white and blue.
September 9-11 – Rosh Hashana
September 11 – Primary Election Day – NO SCHOOL
September 18-19 – Yom Kippur
September 18-20 – RBS Fall Book Fair/Sale (2:00-7:00 PM)
*Open during Open House hours on September 20th.
September 20 – RBS Open House: K-2:
5:30-6:30 PM, 3 & 4:
6:30-7:30 PM
October 8 – Columbus Day Observance – NO SCHOOL
